Coach supervision

Supervision is increasingly being recognised as a prerequisite for sound, professional and effective coaching practice. At Affinity Coaching and Supervision, we see coach supervision as fulfilling three broad purposes (as identified initially by Hawkins and Smith):

Development - helping the coach achieve reflective learning, to develop skills and understanding through exploration of client cases and other aspects of their practice

Support - ensuring that the coach receives the support they need in undertaking their coaching work and the challenges it presents

Quality control - providing a review of ethical standards and a chance to look at blind spots, vulnerabilities and risks

We believe that supervision is a chance to stand back and look at coaching work from different perspectives, for the benefit of coach, client and any relevant others. The aim is to increase coaches’ self-awareness, range of perspectives, options and resourcefulness. It can help focus attention on contracting, look at how to learn from mistakes, manage risks and broaden understanding.

Our supervision can be one-to-one or group-based, depending on needs. We always aim to provide supervision that is designed and contracted to meet the coach’s needs and interests, the wellbeing and interests of clients and the contractual expectations of any other stakeholders, such as a commissioning organisation.

We have particular expertise and experience in providing supervision for teams of in-house coaches: we find that a combination of group and one-to-one supervision works best in these cases.